Air BnB, rent as furnished, or long term rental

[Tom Henderson]

Team, 

I'm finishing the renovation of an entire 6plex in NE Minneapolis. 

Toying with the idea of leaving 2 of the units for AirBnB or short term, fully furnished. Wanted to get your thoughts on this, lots of chatter regarding -- is it worth it? The units will be 2 bed, 2 bath each.

How many of you rent fully furnished apartments long term-- perhaps to consultants on long term gigs? What type of uplift can I charge for a fully furnished place? is it worth it? 

Same with AirBnB -- looking for folks who have tried the different routes, and hoping to get some clarification on how to maximize the units. 

Thanks!!
Tom 

[Stan Searcy]

I tried renting units furnished and have a couple of thoughts. You have to be much more careful in your screening process. I had not considered that and had tenants trash my sofa (heavy body broke it) and fail to clean the kitchen..... on turnover I had more to do than the normal rent up. If you do go furnished have you considered any of the social agencies that need longer term rentals? I rented a different unit to a woman's shelter program and the agency was responsible for maintenance and repair and I only had one tenant even though they had some turnover. 

Second thought re AirBnB. Have you checked the occupancy and rental rates for real world numbers for your area? There is a service that has those stats, for a fee. Your expectations may not be met if the competition is strong. Have you considered that with the overnight rental operation you are in another business? One involving clean ups every few days and key deliveries. That could be another job for you and unless your units are close by it could be a pain to deal with the day to day operations. I live in a resort area in Hawaii and have chosen not to do AirBnB because I don't want the extra work load and in Kona there are 30k people and 1400 AirBnB units available. In order to be successful I would have to have real nice furnishings and great photos ...... and great reviews. I chose to rent to long term residents.

Best of luck to you, whatever you chose to do.... I'd like to hear back in 6 months and know how it is working out for you.